This invention relates generally to messaging programs, such as email messaging programs, and more particularly to such programs that have built-in video and/or audio media recording and/or playback capabilities.
The popularity of small video cameras for use with personal computers has been increasing. Such video cameras are sometimes referred to as netcams or webcams. Typically, they connect to the Universal Serial Bus (USB) or other port of a computer, and enable users to record or stream video and audio into the computer. Popular applications of such cameras include small-scale video conferencing, live transfer of video onto a web site, as well as other applications.
Unfortunately, using such cameras in connection with existing email messaging programs is generally not possible. An email messaging program is defined herein as a program that can both send and receive email. Such a program is typically, but not necessarily, able to accommodate email according to a given standard, such as the Post Office Protocol (POP), or the Internet Messaging Access Protocol (IMAP). Such programs include versions of Microsoft Outlook, available from Microsoft Corp., of Redmond, Wash., as well as versions of America Online (AOL), available from AOL Time Warner, of New York, N.Y.
A user wishing to send video or audio media with such an existing email messaging program has only limited options. The user can record the video or audio media with another program, completely separate from the email messaging program, and then attach the recorded media as a file attachment to an email message within the email messaging program. This approach, however, is disadvantageous. It requires the user to go outside the email messaging program to perform video or audio media recording capability. Furthermore, especially in the case of video, the resulting recorded media may have a large file size. However, many Internet Service Providers (ISP's) restrict the size of email messages.
Even if the user is able to send the recorded video or audio with his or her ISP, the recipient's ISP may still reject the email message as too large. Besides individual email message size limits, another constraint imposed by many ISP's and email providers, especially web-based email providers such as Hotmail, run by Microsoft Corp., is a limit on total email mailbox size. An email provider may thus also reject an email message that has recorded audio or video because receiving it would cause the recipient to exceed his or her allowed total email mailbox size.
The user may also record video or audio media and upload the resulting file to an Internet web site, such as by using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). In this case, the user provides the recipient of the email message with instructions as to how to download the media. Certain web sites also host such video or audio media for this purpose. However, in either situation, the user still must inconveniently perform some manual steps in order to upload the media to the web site. The recipient is similarly inconvenienced, having to navigate a perhaps unfamiliar web site in order to retrieve the media.
For these and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.